PRESENT TEXT AND PHOTOS BY RI A D N A I R A Questmesor ah Stalin’sForgotten Corner An unplanned visit to Georgia unearthed signs of vibrant Jewish life, even during the Communist reign. How did the “Gruzinis” of the past manage to keep a warm hold on tradition despite the chilling odds? BY Ari Greenspan and Ari Z. Zivotofsky PHOTOS Ari Greenspan f everything had gone according to plan, you would now be reading about our trip to Tu- nisia. We’d heard tantalizing anecdotes about shuls in Tunisian caves, and we wanted to see those, and other exotica, firsthand. So we did our research and mapped out a de- tailed itinerary. As an added perk, we planned to join a small film crew together with Rabbi Eliyahu Birnbaum, a dayan and world Jewish traveler, who is putting together a media series called “The Jew of the World.” It’s a program after our own hearts, a series that follows his travels to exotic communities to meet the last Jewish remnants and un- derstand their history. But then when the three bochurim were kidnapped and murdered and the Gaza war started, the Israeli foreign ministry warned us of concrete threats toward Israelis in Tunis. We were disappointed that Tunis was no longer on the agenda — at least not this summer — but we didn’t cancel our travel plans entirely. Instead, we took a spur-of-the-moment trip to Georgia, a spectacularly beautiful, tree-covered country in the former Soviet Union. Meat and Vodka Our visits to these off-the-beaten-track (at least for us) communities are often filled with surprises, and they usually teach us how little we know about world Jewry. We figured that we’d see some old Russian types, look at some depressing apartment blocks, and that would be our tour. How wrong we were. Georgia had close to 100,000 Jews at the beginning of the 20th century, although the majority made aliyah in the ’90s or moved to New York. Still, it’s one of the oldest-known Jewish commu- nities, and, according to their tradition, some have been there since the era of the Bayis Rishon. Some claim the community was from the original dispersion of the Ten Tribes, while others posit that the Jews fled here after Nevuchadnetzar conquered the first Beis Hamikdash. One thing is for sure — the kehillah is ancient, and the Georgian government even announced this year that there 48 MISHPACHA 24 Av 5774 | August 20, 2014 MISHPACHA 49 Stalin’s Forgotten Corner F1. The president of the synagogue took us down some stairs into a dark and 1. dank basement room where they still would be official celebrations to mark the of the US president’s state visit years ago and F 2600th anniversary of Georgian Jewry. is a testament to the Western leanings of the Georgia make kosher wine Known by their Russian nickname, Gru- country. Georgia is strategically important to zinis, these Jews’ indecipherable Georgian Israel as well, in that it shares a southern bor- language is a Kartvelian language found in der with Turkey and Armenia, and Armenia the Caucuses, unique to them, with no ety- is just north of Iran. Israel has a full embassy mological relatives. Their script is a circular and fine relations with Georgia. In fact, people scribble, unlike anything we’d seen before in seemed pleased to see us and we wore our yar- 2. 3. our travels. In addition, they speak a local Ju- mulkes proudly — although an old man who F F F deo-Georgian language — similar to Yiddish showed us his old school building remembers or Ladino — called Ebraeli. We were lucky to that as a child, the local children would pass get David Aziz, a local chacham and chazzan, around stories of Pesach blood libels. There to join us as translator and facilitator. were blood libels less than a century ago, and David, whose sense of mesorah and duty of course during the times of the Czar and to the community is inspiring, is a cheery subsequent Communism life was difficult. fellow who learned Torah from the old men But today that seems to be all part of the past. of Georgia. Although most people left the Tbilisi is still the center of Jewish life, and strictures of religion under the Communist although it once had many more, today it still regime, the Georgians still retained their boasts three shuls, daily minyanim, a kosher Judaism. Unlike in other parts of the USSR, here there was very little intermarriage, the shuls generally stayed open, and people man- aged to continue their lives as Jews. Maybe due to the distance from Moscow, or to the favoritism of Georgian-born dictator Stalin, What was the secret 1. The gabbai’s method of record for Ari G., who’s a trained Gruzia — as it was called by the Russians — donations and aliyos without shochet himself seemed to have things a bit better than the of the Gruzini Jews' having to write on Shabbos 4. We found numerous rest of the empire. There was never a ban tenacious hold on 2. on shechitah, so meat was always available, 2. Leading downF a staircase into lead-lined taharah boxes from the ancient wine cellar. Even a community that refused to and the community was able to bake matzos their past? when wine wasn’t available in the relinquish tradition without government interference. In fact, on Soviet Union, everyone knew it our 1985 trip to Russia to visit refuseniks — could be attained in Tbisili 5. Our team couldn’t resist those waiting for visas to Israel — there was slapping some dough on the very little food in general, and certainly no 3. The chicken shechting room in baker’s oven and enjoying kosher meat. We were sitting in a Moscow restaurant, and butcher. Here there are dis- 4. the Surami shul was fascinating the results succah one day, when all of a sudden a big, tinct minhagim and tunes, not to mention food. F hot meat stew and vodka appeared. Our hosts While the average Georgian Jew today is not explained that it was courtesy of a Georgian learned, some interesting books are still to be Jew who had a yahrtzeit, and that shechitah found on the shelves. In one of the shuls, we 5. was allowed in his country since the typical found a gabbai’s Shabbos aliyah book, which F constraints were a bit more relaxed over there. allowed him to keep track of who received an 4. aliyah to the Torah and the amount the man F Blessing for the Czar What was the se- donated. The book was handwritten in the cret of Gruzini Jews’ tenacious hold on their local Georgian alphabet. An old Soviet-era past? We got a glimpse when we arrived at siddur still has the prayer for the Communist night in the capital city of Tbilisi, which was government of the USSR. “The protector of in the middle of a citywide blackout. We hoped peace,” the community was forced to recite, the darkness wouldn’t be a bad omen as we “should be blessed.” Every Jewish commu- drove down George Bush Avenue, the main nity always had a public prayer for the local thoroughfare into town. It was named in honor government or monarch, no matter how 50 MISHPACHA 24 Av 5774 | August 20, 2014 MISHPACHA 51 6. wicked he was. Who could forget Tevye’s Fiddler on the Roof blessing for the Czar? “May G-d bless and keep the Czar… far away from us!” Ever on the lookout for relics of tradition, we asked about old matzah ovens, and were told that matzah used to be made in Tbilisi, but the machinery was thrown out years ago, since the community now imports it from Israel. But de- spite the imports of kosher food and wine from Israel, the president of the synagogue took us down some stairs into a dark and dank basement room where they still make kosher wine. In fact, Ari G.’s neighbor in Israel, a prominent Russian refusenik from the 1970s and ’80s, used to tell him how he would travel from Moscow to Tbilisi in order to get kosher wine — the only place in the Soviet Union where it was available. Looking around the walls between the large wine jugs, we spotted a huge old copper bowl. When we asked him about it, the president of the synagogue said this was the utensil used for mixing the flour and 6. The house by the ancient shul water for the matzah. We also saw bags and bags might have been abandoned, but of seforim, talleisim, and tefillin that we hoped the last owner left us regards were earmarked for burial, as they were outside, exposed to the elements and rotting. 7. The sad remnants of an entire Then we were off to meet one of the old men community’s tefillin, left in the who’ve kept the mesorah of tefillah and songs corner of the shul when the last Jew locked the door alive. He was also David’s primary teacher. While we were filming and interviewing him, a fam- 8. Realizing the hole in the wall ily of religious Muslims walked by, the women was a matzah oven, we nearly and girls all with their heads covered. They saw managed to put together the the yarmulkes and beards and excitedly started ancient equipment from the whispering, pointing, and taking pictures of us. scraps we found in the vicinity We asked where they were from and with great 7.